Since January 2003 Soekershof is 'official partner' in The LifeTime Gallery Project, which is supported by The LifeTime Foundation of German artist Philine Hofmann.

The LifeTime Gallery Project, established in 2002, is an art initiative that provides local artists (in three townships in different geographic areas in South Africa) the opportunity to improve their skills and to exhibit their work overseas. The primary aim is to establish an infrastructure with sustainable social and economic prospects for the artists and their surroundings.

The painters, poets and sculpturists are linked together in so called "artists' circles". Over a period of two years Philine follows and documents the different stages of their artistic developments and daily lives. The two-year period of The LifeTime Art Project will see the growth of a contemporary South African art collection. The two-year period of artistic investigation will culminate in Philine's installation of an exhibition which will represent the art works that have been created, expressed in a variety of her own media, including photography, video, sound, text and the art works of the artists.

The exhibition will narrate the story of search and discovery and of vocational and artistic development as well as on their impact on the social circumstances of individual artists.

In the future the works will be exhibited in the participating townships in South Africa; the sculptures in the different environments at Soekershof.

The three townships involved in the project are Venda in the Northern Province; Sijathemba near Johannesburg and Nqkubela in Robertson. These three are considered as "forgotten corners" which offer few prospects for the population.

Soekershof came into the picture after Philine Hofmann 'discovered' the wire-tree (Baobab) near the entrance. This tree was made by artists Prince and Joey; both living in Nqkubela. The construction and the finishing of this wire-tree took a little over a month of hard labor. The tree incorporates more than 2-kilometer wire and about 25.000 knots.

Baobab wire-tree

South Africa boosts of undiscovered talent; especially in the townships. It is a privilege for us to provide this talent with facilities and expertise. Sculpturists from Nqkubela will be enabled to create their voluminous works in our barn and we feel ourselves much obliged to share our knowledge and literature.

See also: http://www.lifetimegallery.org (in German)